Math Chick

Hands-On, Discovery Learning & Tech integration for Math, Science and STEM

Types of Taxes, Gross and Net Income and Multiplication of Decimals using Models

Happy FRIDAY!!!
It is almost time for Thanksgiving break! I know I can’t wait to rest and recharge.
This week I signed my students up for a computer game, Prodigy.  My students LOVE this game! You can set assignments, differentiate grade levels and it is ALL FREE!!! There is a paid version for students but it is not necessary.  Every thing for the teacher is FREE!!! The game provides them with questions, and even allows them to use aids such as base ten blocks or markers to help them solve the questions. If you would like to check it out here is the link!  Let me know what you all think about it!

I started out the week with Types of Taxes.  In our state, the standard calls for all students to understand these four types of taxes, property, payroll, income and sales tax.  I first had students research and define each type of tax.  We then put our definitions on to a Padlet.  From those definitions, we developed our own definition.

Afterwards we played a Kahoot which I developed to help reinforce the definitions.   One thing I have learned is when playing Kahoot, kids often focus more on being on the leader board and answering too fast in order to make that happen.  More times students are wrong when really they knew the answer.  So I started Hands Up Kahoot.  Students will put their hands up in the air while I read the question fully.  Then I will allow them to answer the question.
The next day we focused on Gross Income and Net Income.  I used an activity which allows students to draw a Gross income card and then draw three payroll tax cards.  In addition to payroll taxes, I also included medical insurance.  I used a paycheck that I found on the internet from mathberts.com, you can see the citation for that at the bottom of the paycheck.  I laminated the paychecks so that students could use dry erase markers in order to practice.  I put the gross incomes in one cup and payroll taxes in another cup.  If you would like to do this in your own classroom click HERE for the cards and blank paycheck.
On Wednesday we had a major science exam so students played prodigy when they were done.
On Thursday, we started with multiplying decimals by wholes.  I first had each student use base ten blocks to make 0.36, then we journaled what it looked like.  They sit in groups of 4, so we took each person’s 0.36 and put them altogether (0.36 x 4). We drew all the tenths and hundredths we had.  We then exchanged 10 hundredths for a tenth etc.  We looked at the repeated addition and carried that over to multiplication.  We repeated this same situation with another decimal, 0.28, but this time two groups got together, so there was 8 different 0.28s.  This was wonderful to see how students used their place value knowledge to exchange tenths for whole and hundredths for tenths etc.  It was easy for the students to see how this related to the repeated addition and then to the multiplication.
On Friday we investigated tenths times tenths, for example 0.9 x 0.6
We used grids and blue and yellow crayons to show the intersecting hundredths is the answer.  Students practiced this using an activity that had QR codes for self assessment.  I like to use the blue and yellow, in order to count the green squares.
HERE is the activity with QR codes.
I would love to hear from you all and hear what you all do to tackle this in your classroom! Please comment below!
Until next week,
Peace, Love, Math-
Jenn
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